Guaranteeing his incredible season has at least one more match, FGCU men’s tennis junior Jordi Viveswas selected as an automatic qualifier to the 2014 NCAA Men’s Tennis Individual Championship, announced by the NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Subcommittee on Wednesday evening.
The singles and doubles competition will be conducted May 21-26 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga., following the conclusion of the team championship, which runs from May 15-20. The University of Georgia will serve as host.
Ranked 50th by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Vives (Barcelona, Spain/IES Ferran Tallada/USC) was selected as one of 17 automatic qualifiers.
“This is an incredible moment for Jordi and for our program,” head coach CJ Weber said. “We are honored and excited to have representation in the most prestigious event in college tennis. This is something incredible that Jordi has earned through his consistent efforts throughout the season and now it’s time to prepare to do some damage.”
Becoming the first from FGCU to earn a spot in the championship, the Spaniard’s qualification is a result of his 34-4 overall record, which includes a 20-2 result playing one singles in each of the spring’s dual matches. After ending his fall campaign with nine-straight wins, Vives opened the spring season with victories over then-No. 36 Florida State and then-No. 60 Nebraska, increasing his streak to 11, which at the time was the longest in the nation. After establishing his reign on Jan. 23, the Barcelona native extended his streak to 14, before falling to Auburn’s Daniel Cochrane, then-ranked 112th, on Feb. 7.
Vives’ success on the season garnered him recognition in the Atlantic Sun Conference as he was named A-Sun Player of the Year, to the All-Conference First Team, to the Academic All-Conference Team and to the All-Tournament Team.
“I’m really glad to represent FGCU in such a grand tournament,” Vives said. “I really appreciate the support that I have received from my coach, my teammates and the fans. I’m looking forward to practicing really hard these next two weeks so I can show what this program is about.”
Of the 64 players listed to the field Vives has faced two this season, earning a win against each. During his fall tour Vives beat Jason Tahir of Duke and Leandro Toledo of Minnesota, all leading to his win of November’s Dick Vitale Invite. In the Eagles dual match against Minnesota Vives and Toledo met again where the Golden Gopher claimed a win.
The junior is no stranger to the championship tournament or its host school as Vives, a transfer from USC, attended the 2012 contest in Athens where the Trojans were crowned national champions. Although he did not compete at NCAAs, Vives appeared in five matches during his rookie season at USC, posting a record of 4-1.
Fans can follow Vives and his run through the 2014 NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship on twitter at @FGCU_MTEN andwww.FGCUAthletics.com for up-to-the-minute news and information.
2014 NCAA Men’s Tennis Individual Championship Field
Automatic qualifications (17), listed alphabetically by conference:
American Athletic — Roberto Cid, South Florida
Atlantic Coast — Mitchell Frank, Virginia
Atlantic Sun — Jordi Vives, Florida Gulf Coast
Atlantic 10 — Alexis Heugas, VCU
Big South — Philippe Tsangaridis, Coastal Carolina
Big Ten — Jared Hiltzik, Illinois
Big 12 Guillermo Alcorta Oklahoma
Colonial — Rafael Aita, North Carolina-Wilmington
Conference USA — Joran Vliegen East Carolina
Ivy League — Winston Lin, Columbia
Missouri Valley — Alen Salibasic, Drake
Mountain West — Andrew Bettles, Boise State
Pac-12 — Clay Thompson, UCLA
SEC — Nik Scholtz, Ole Miss
Southern — Cameron Silverman, Elon
Summit League — Henry Craig, Denver
West Coast — Alex Sarkissian, Pepperdine
At-large selections (47), listed alphabetically by last name:
Andrew Adams, South Carolina
Harrison Adams Texas A&M
Axel Alvarez Llamas, Oklahoma
Greg Andrews, Notre Dame
Gonzales Austin, Vanderbilt
Romain Bogaerts, Wake Forest
Nick Chappell, TCU
Amerigo Contini, Virginia Tech
Florent Diep, Florida
Alex Domijan, Virginia
Diego Galeano, Baylor
Marcos Giron, UCLA
Lloyd Glasspool, Texas
Farris Gosea, Illinois
Yannick Hanfmann, Southern California
Hunter Harrington, Clemson
Andrew Harris, Oklahoma
Søren Hess-Olesen, Texas
Tom Jomby, Kentucky
Peter Kobelt, Ohio State
Julian Lenz, Baylor
Mikelis Libietis, Tennessee
Ryan Lipman, Vanderbilt
Mackenzie McDonald, UCLA
Ben McLachlan, California
Denis Nguyen, Harvard
Lukas Ollert, Auburn
Nathan Pasha, Georgia
Austin Powell, NC State
Patrick Pradella, Baylor
Daniil Proskura, Alabama
Roberto Quiroz, Southern California
Hunter Reese, Tennessee
Fred Saba, Duke
Ray Sarmiento, USC
Ronnie Schneider, North Carolina
Brayden Schnur, North Carolina
Ryan Shane, Virginia
Austin Smith, Georgia
Raleigh Smith, Northwestern
Clarke Spinosa, San Diego
Leonard Stakhovsky, Penn State
Jason Tahir, Duke
Leandro Toledo, Minnesota
Shane Vinsant, Texas A&M
Jonny Wang, USC
Dane Webb, Oklahoma